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Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha(魔法少女リリカル なのは,Mahō Shōjo Ririkaru Nanoha) is an anime television series directed by Akiyuki Shinbo, with screenplay written by Masaki Tsuzuki, and produced by Seven Arcs. It forms part of the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha series. The Japanese Association of Independent Television Stations broadcast thirteen episodes between October and December 2004. The series is a spin-off of the Triangle Heart series and its story follows a young girl named Nanoha Takamachi who decides to help a young mage named Yūno to recover a set of twenty-one artifacts named the "Jewel Seeds".

Masaki Tsuzuki adapted the series into a novel, which Megami Bunko published in August 2005. King Records has adapted several soundtracks and drama CDs from the series. A sequel to the anime series titled Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's produced by Seven Arcs premiered in Japan on October 2005, broadcast on Chiba TV. A film adaptation, also by Seven Arcs of the anime series was released in theaters on January 23, 2010.

Geneon Entertainment licensed the anime series for English-language dubbed release in North America at Anime Expo 2007 (June 29 to July 2). Due to Geneon switching distribution labels between September 2007 and July 2008, Funimation Entertainment distributed the series (in a single DVD compilation-volume boxset) approximately one and a half years after the announcement of the licensing. Many production-credits for the English-language dubbed release were missing.

Moderately well-received by Japanese-language viewers, all DVD volumes peak-ranked seventy to twenty-second and below on the Oricon Animation DVD ranking and remained on the chart for at least two weeks. The series received mixed reviews from English-language critics, with some praising and others criticising the pacing, visual style, and music of the series. G. B. Smith criticized the English-language dubbed release for its inconsistency in direction.